Ajahn Brahm: Community, Trust, Dec. 2025

Community and Trust | Ajahn Brahm | 12 December 2025

Samadhi with Ajahn Chah

Ajahn Chah: Detachment within activity

Ajahn Chah - Detachment Within Activity (1983dukkha)

Five good places to practice in Asia (Go)

Avalokiteshvara, Dambulla, Ceylon

We love traveling to Asia in search of enlightenment, Eastern philosophy, and peace. For centuries, even from the time of Prince Siddhartha (the future Buddha), people have traveled East to Asian locales in search of transcendent wisdom.

That wisdom still exists there but as always is hard to find. There are dangerous places along the way, like trolls under bridges to sacred places.  And there are sacred places.

Pa Auk Forest Monastery, Burma

Pa-Auk: A Meditator's Experience

The best is Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Burma (called Myanmar by the dictatorship), protected by the country's ongoing turmoil:

Myanmar Civil War (2021-present), Rohingya Muslim oppression by Burman Buddhist majority, Aung Sung Suu Kyi's house arrests, Chinese aid, Asia's Hitler Than Shwe and his horribly named SLORC ("State Law and Order Restoration Council"), the Saffron Revolution, poverty, police state corruption by generals and strongmen following Than Shwe...

There really is a place of authentic Buddhist practice with enlightened ones.

This British nun found Pa Auk Temple

the birthplace of George Orwell that inspired him to write British colonial classics like Nineteen Eighty-Four (which could have been written about the modern British settler colonial project known as the USA), Burmese Days, and short stories like Shooting an Elephant. There's no need for a Westerner to get caught up in the intrigue like beautiful actress Patricia Arquette in Beyond Rangoon...even though we want to see and help and be involved.

This Czech monk found the light in Pa Auk

Decades of trouble created a reserve for Buddhism to be practiced, as impossible as that may sound, like the great ecosystem and protected sanctuary that resulted from South and North Korea's DMZ. Internecine war in the Demilitarized Zone keeps people out and nature in, making it thrive with nature. How else could one explain a shaft of light in darkness? Danger keeps most away, but sincere seekers find paradise.

Knowing 'n Seeing (Ven. Pa Auk)

Goenka Art of Living retreat, Pan-Asia

Private practice in a cell closet cubicle

Everyone who goes to Asia for a good while ends up on a free 10-day Goenka mindfulness retreat (dhamma.org). But that can now be done here in the West. They are worldwide, and they play tape recordings of teacher S.N. Goenka giving the instructions (in a Transylvanian accent that no one but us seems to have noticed or commented on). Earplugs are good rather than being interrupted by echoes of his Burmese Buddhist teacher U Ba Khin's words for one interpretation of vipassana (Buddhist insight meditation) among many.

Shaolin Temple, China

Quiet contemplation or international showing off?

There may not be much Buddhist instruction in the sense of learning the Dharma or even Taoism at the Shaolin Temple nowadays, but there is a lot of kung fu and physical training to ready the body if one should ever take up meditation in earnest like Bodhidharma did.

Start preparing now. Here are some poses.

But why would anybody when there's training, fighting, and defending to do? And there are international competitions and traveling demonstration tours. It's a citadel of Chinese monasticism and history. So who has time for the practice everyone is ostensibly defending? The communist regime and its capitalist motives want more "martial" (war) and less meditative serenity because the only thing worse than a Mahayana monk or nun without a serious meditation practice is one who is not out there chopping wood (with the barehanded karate chops) and carrying water (in buckets on a pole over the shoulders), striving in the way of Zen's nonstriving with and koans and sesshins catnaps.

Wat Pah Nanachat, Northeast Thailand (Isan)

Roshi, Ajahn Sumedho, George Sharp, Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Khemadhammo, Hampstead Vihara, UK

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Ajahn Chah: wisdom so powerful, it's simple.

There is a famous forest temple near the Golden Triangle, where Laotians, Cambodians, and Thais meet to do business and internationally traffic drugs. It is more famous for quiet meditation and arduous mindfulness in the tradition of Ajahn Chah (and Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Brahm, and a whole line of Western teachers trained by the Theravada meditation master of the Thai Forest Tradition).

Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan (PRC)

Fo Guang Shan Monastery Worldwide Web (fgs.org.tw) might be a nice international place to visit for the practice of devotion Amitabha and Kwan Yin worship, light on Buddhist theory and heavy on ritual practices and repentance, very catholic and at the core leaning to a distinction few other than Alan Watts seems to mention: There are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on," Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin sings in "Stairway to Heaven." And in Buddhism those two paths would be called jiriki and tariki. This is at the core of practice -- what to practice? Self-powered or other-powered? Effort or devotion? Theravada (the teachings of the historical Buddha) or Mahayana (the teachings of many "Cosmic Buddhas")?

Japan in particular went heavy for the other-powered way, where a divine or higher power does the striving. But China followed suit to make worship of deities like Amitabha and Guanyin the top priorities for temples and lay devotees. Since no one can save oneself, we need to be saved. It's the Christian way, too, the point of Catholicism -- worldwide takeover of faith, devotion, intercessionary prayer, and anything to take the responsibility off of me for my own salvation (liberation, awakening, realization, enlightenment). It makes sense, but it is not what the historical Buddha taught.

We certainly need help (of a Buddha/Teacher, Dharma/Teaching, and Noble Sangha/Successfully Taught), but we must do it (practice) ourselves because we ourselves are responsible for ourselves. That's not the path of devotion.

We worship the Goddess Guanyin

What makes Hinduism, Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, and Pure Land (Mahayana) Buddhism so promising, inviting, and easy? It's DEVOTION over everything else. It's a popularity contest with whatever resonates, promising to do it for you if you'll only commit to worship. In this Dark Age (Kali Yuga), that's all we can seem to hope for from people is craving and faith, lust and praying for forgiveness, desire and guilt. So these will only grow stronger, as in the Nichiren Buddhist movement to pray one mantra over and over (like Hindu japa mantra-repetition practice) to get all your wishes, The Secret style. Here's the "secret" recitation: Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. Just don't ask what it translates as because you may be disappointed.

• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, August 2024

Uposatha Jhana (Moon Zen) Ajahn Brahm

What is the blissful and inviting rapture of the light of absorption (jhana)? Is it santosha?

Can a Westerner achieve rapture and insight?

Full moon Sunday is the Uposatha (the fasting day of the lunar observance) when some choose to keep the Eight Precepts for one day and night. LA's Mindfulness Meditation Center in Covina (suburban San Gabriel Valley) is conducting its monthly Poya Day celebration in honor of it. This is an excellent time to relax, listen, and practice the path of absorption with the great Ajahn Brahm -- or to read Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties.

The Jhanas (Absorptions) – Seven Steps to Heaven (and One Beyond) by Ajahn Brahm

Nimitta (sign) emerges from obscuring clouds

(The Buddhist Society) Jhāna (meditative absorption, zen) is a bliss better than sex? Mantra: "Relax to the max!" There are two kinds of Buddhist meditation (no, not samatha and vipassana, which are a single system bifurcated by people who misunderstand what's needed for insight. The two types are Second Noble Truth (craving) meditation and Third Noble Truth (letting go) meditation, as explained by accomplished Western meditator Ajahn Brahm.

British Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to the world as Ajahn Brahm) was born Peter Betts in London, England (United Kingdom) on August 7, 1951.

Mindfulness, Bliss, Beyond: Meditator's Handbook

He came from a working-class background then won a scholarship to study theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. After graduating from Cambridge, he taught high school for a year before traveling to Northeast Thailand (Isan) to become a Theravada Buddhist monk.

He decided to train in the Thai Forest Tradition with the famous meditation master Ajahn Chah Bodhinyana Mahathera, who established Wat Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat.

After his attainments in the forest -- and the "scandal" (along with Ajahn Sujato) of ordaining women in the Theravada tradition (Bhikkhuni Sangha), he moved to Serpentine, Perth, Western Australia (BSWA.org), to serve as abbot and advisor to a monastery (Bodhinyana Vihara) and nunnery with Western sensibilities open to students of meditation or monasticism or both.

• Ajahn's birthday: Bear Awareness: Taming Wild Mind

Ajahn Brahm Indonesia 2024 | Buddhist Society of Western Australia
Kindfulness: a new kind of meditation by Ajahn Brahm

• Ajahn Brahm at The Buddhist Society, Dec. 16, 2018; Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Our Real Home: On Dying (Ajahn Chah)

Our Real Home: A Talk to an Aging Lay Disciple Approaching Death

Ajahn Chah (translated from the Thai by The Sangha at Wat Pah Nanachat © 1994)

Ajahn Chah was regarded as an arahant.

Now determine in your mind to listen with respect to the Dhamma. During the time that I am speaking, be as attentive to my words as if it were the Lord Buddha himself sitting in front of you.

Close your eyes and make yourself comfortable, compose your mind and make it one-pointed. Humbly allow the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha] of wisdom, truth, and purity to abide in your heart as a way of showing respect to the Fully Enlightened One.

Today I have brought nothing material of any substance to offer you, only Dhamma, the teachings of the Lord Buddha. Listen well. You should understand that even the Buddha himself, with his great store of accumulated virtue, could not avoid physical death.

When he reached old age, he relinquished his body and let go of its heavy burden. Now you too must learn to be satisfied with the many years you've already depended on your body.

You should feel that it's enough.

You can compare it to household utensils you've had for a long time — your cups, saucers, plates, and so on. When you first had them, they were clean and shining, but now after using them for so long, they're starting to wear out.

Some are already broken, some have disappeared and those that are left are deteriorating; they have no stable form, and it's their nature to be like that. Your body is the same way — it's been continually changing right from the day you were born, through childhood and youth, until now it's reached old age. You must accept that.

The Buddha said that conditions (sankharas), whether they are internal conditions, bodily conditions, or external conditions, are not-self, their nature is to change. Contemplate this truth until you see it clearly.

This very lump of flesh that lies here in decline is saccadhamma, the truth. The truth of this body is saccadhamma, and it is the unchanging teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha taught us to look at the body, to contemplate it, and come to terms with its nature.

We must be able to be at peace with the body, whatever state it is in. The Buddha taught that we should ensure that it's only the body that is locked up in jail and not let the mind be imprisoned along with it.

Now as your body begins to run down and deteriorate with age, don't resist that, but don't let your mind deteriorate with it. Keep the mind separate.

Give energy to the mind by realizing the truth of the way things are. The Lord Buddha taught that this is the nature of the body, it can't be any other way: having been born it gets old and sick and then it dies. This is a great truth you are presently encountering. Look at the body with wisdom and realize it. More

Bear Awareness: Wild Mind (Ajahn Brahm)

Seeing sexiness everywhere, even a bear becomes plush and eroticized. Help, Ajahn Brahm!

I didn't tame my wild mind. It led to pregnancy and these two knuckleheads I'd kill to protect.

Bear Awareness: Questions and Answers on Taming Your Wild Mind

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Bear Awareness: Wild Mind

British Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm has 4.8 out of 5 stars with 79 ratings.

The bestselling author of Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? and one of the world’s most beloved Buddhist monks answers meditators’ questions.

In Bear Awareness Englishman monk Ajahn Brahm answers actual questions from his meditation students––questions other sitters may have had as well.

Kindfulness with mindfulness for fullness.

While most mindfulness meditation teachers praise the benefits of "bare awareness," he teaches BEAR awareness. Huh? He helps us make friends with the scary things that come up on the cushion, and he knows how to lift the mood with a well-placed stuffed teddy––or a well-timed pun.

The intimacy of the question-and-answer format provides a fresh experience of learning from a master meditator.

Whether Ajahn Brahm is urging readers to fly Buddha Air (sit back and relax on the way to nirvana), giving tips for dealing with panic attacks or depression, or extolling the bliss of meditation that is better than sex, he gives us permission to enjoy our lives and our kindful and joyful practice. More (Amazon.com)

• Ajahn Brahm (BSWA.org), Nov. 2017; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

'Blue Eyes in Saffron Robes' (film)

Blue Eyes in Saffron Robes | full documentary | Theravada Buddhism

There are nuns and sisters, too! 

(Dhamma Source) Radharc stumbled upon a group of Americans and Europeans living as Theravada Buddhist monks deep in the rain forest near the borders between the Golden Triangle countries of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Country: Isan/Siam. Date: 4/10/79. Duration: 26.45 mins. Director: DUNN, Fr. Joe. Support this documentary at: radharc.ie/product/ref-no-0136-blue-eyes-in-saffron-robes. Dhamma Source is a free archive and directory of Buddhist media focused mainly on [Early] Theravada Buddhism [as recorded in the Pali language canon]. May all beings be at peace; may all beings be free from suffering.

• The Buddha really had blue eyes? and Jesus was neither blond, Nordic, nor anything like most paintings of him? Is that why depictions of Muhammad are forbidden?

The Buddha's Blue Eyes - Wisdom Eyes, Meaning, Buddhist Symbols, Images from Nepal

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The Blue-Eyed Buddha

(Robert Sepehr) Blue Eyed Buddha and the Aryan (Noble) Path

• VIDEO: Is India the world's oldest civilization? Iron Age began thousands of years earlier (Indus script challenge)
• Buddhism in Sweden
• The ancient Viking Helgö Buddha of Sweden
• The Buddha in Viking Sweden
• Pale Central Asian Buddhas of Burma
• Viking with a Buddha: ancient Asian arts

All blue-eyed people come from a shared common ancestor

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(VERIFY) April 28, 2023: All blue-eyed people share a specific genetic trait (mutation) that leads scientists to believe that all blue-eyed people share an ancestor from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Read more: verifythis.com/article/ne...

How'd blond hair, blue eyes spread to Europe?

(Celtic History Decoded) Look at this map that shows the countries with the most people with blue eyes in the world. Now look at this map that shows the countries with the most people with naturally blond hair in the world. As we can see, there is a strong overlap in Scandinavia and the northeast of Europe.

• Now we can all have blue eyes, too! (Myeyebb Sale)

CHAPTERS

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:36 True Origins of Blue Eyes
• 2:46 Origins of Blond/Blonde Hair
• 4:21 How Did Blond Hair & Blue Eyes Spread to Europe?
• 5:30 What About the Indo-Europeans? Yamnaya
• 6:56 Bell Beakers
• 7:17 Corded Ware Culture
• 8:18 Vote for Video Topics
• 8:34 Attractiveness Theory
• 9:09 Adaptive Advantage?
• 9:34 Vikings

Burmese gilded marble Buddha

Countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, as well as Iceland (which was settled by Nordics known as the Norse), have the highest levels of people with blond hair and blue eyes in the world.

Why is this though, and when did this phenomenon of blond hair and blue eyes first develop, and how did it spread to Europe? Let’s start by looking at the origins of blue eyes and blond hair.

First up is blue eyes. I often see people on the internet quoting outdated information on the origin of blue eyes. This is because the initial research came from a team from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2008 who identified the genes involved in blue eye color developing in humans. #blueyes #blondehair #ancestry

SOURCES

• Mathieson I et al. The genomic history of southeastern Europe. Nature. 2018 Mar 8;555(7695):197-203. doi: 10.1038/nature25778. Epub 2018 Feb 21. PMID: 29466330; PMCID: PMC6091220. The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe - PMC (nih.gov)
• Iosif Lazaridis et al. A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia.Science377,940-951(2022).DOI:10.1126/science.abq0755 Bronze Age Britain (warwick.ac.uk)
• Malmström, H. et al. The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizon - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume 286, Issue 1912 2019 doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1528
• Recent origin of the ‘blonde hair-blue eye phenotype’ combination: Corded Ware culture | by Andreas Weber | Medium
• Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor | ScienceDaily
• The Genetics of Blond Hair | Science | AAAS
• Eiberg, H., Troelsen, J., Nielsen, M. et al. Blue eye color in humans may be caused by a perfectly associated founder mutation in a regulatory element located within the HERC2 gene inhibiting OCA2 expression. Hum Genet 123, 177–187 (2008). doi.org/10.1007/s00439-007-04...
• Ancestral contributions to contemporary European complex traits | bioRxiv
• Skin colour and Vitamin D: An update - Hanel - 2020 - Experimental Dermatology - Wiley Online Library
• Fu, Q., Posth, C., Hajdinjak, M. et al. The genetic history of Ice Age Europe. Nature 534, 200–205 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17993 Günther T,. et al.
• Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation. PLoS Biol. 2018 Jan 9;16(1):e2003703. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003703. PMID: 29315301; PMCID: PMC5760011. Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation - PMC (nih.gov)
• Creative Commons Imagery:
• Dark Tichondrias File: Light hair coloration map.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons Peter Frost File: Eye color map Europe.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons पाटलिपुत्र World map: DalGobboM - Phenotype map: Andrea Hanel, Carsten Carlberg File: Archaeogenetic analysis of human skin pigmentation in Europe (with Asia geographic extension).png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
• Jbuket पाटलिपुत्र File: Eastern Hunter Gatherer.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
• Matteo De Stefano/MUSE File: Homo sapiens - Neolithic - reconstruction - MUSE.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
• Wojciech Pędzich, Robert Molyneaux File:Yamnaya phenotype, Reconstruction, male, grave Novooleksiivka; Ukraine.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
• Scandinavian hunter gatherers

Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded: @celtichistorydecoded. Vote for the video topics audience wants to see: historydecoded

• Dhamma Source, 11/6/22; VERIFY, 4/28/23; Celtic History Decoded; Celtic History Decoded, 10/20/24; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Finland: 'My Brother, Buddhist Monk'

Facts about the personality traits of blue eyed people (ar.inspiredpencil.com)

(TH) By hitting the CC (close caption) icon, English subtitles become visible for non-Finnish speakers

My Brother, Buddhist Monk | short documentary

We have an ancient Scandinavian Helgo Buddha

(Dhamma Source) This cinematic short covers a 26-year-old Finnish man who is leaving his frigid Scandinavian home country to become a Theravada Buddhist monk in the southcentral Thailand, at a Thai Forest Tradition hermitage called Wat Map Jap (aka Wat Marp Jan). This documentary was filmed by his sister, who includes the narration as she videos his departure and arrival at the faraway Asian monastery and their family's reaction to his decision to lead a pure monastic life, striving for enlightenment in this very life.

• VIDEO: Is India the world's oldest civilization? Iron Age began thousands of years earlier (Indus script challenge)
• Buddhism in Sweden
• The ancient Viking Helgö Buddha of Sweden
• The Buddha in Viking Sweden
• Pale Central Asian Buddhas of Burma
• Viking with a Buddha: ancient Asian arts

• Dhamma Source, Aug. 1, 2023; Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly